91看片

 

鈥淲hat makes this research really interesting is its connection to all the people shopping online -- especially this holiday season. No one wants to wait for their orders just because store records were incorrect."鈥�

Your son desperately wants that hot new video game, or your father can鈥檛 wait to get his hands on the latest and greatest new indoor painting tools. It鈥檚 the holiday shopping season so why not find the perfect gift for your loved ones?

Before you race across town and fight traffic on a cold night, you jump online to ensure that local retailers have the gifts in stock. You鈥檙e in luck! Items are in the store because 鈥� the Internet said so.

However, a trip to the stores result in 鈥� empty shelves. You say, 鈥淒arn it! Someone beat me to it.鈥�

The next day, you are back online and noticed the same local store show the items re-stocked with a free next-day store pickup option. You complete the online order and receive a confirmation e-mail. Everything looks set -- only to receive another email a few hours later that reads, 鈥淪orry, we don鈥檛 have the item in stock at the store. Instead we will ship your order from an out-of-state facility that will take two additional days.鈥�

Don鈥檛 worry, you鈥檙e not alone.

Inventory glitches are common, Rafay Ishfaq, Associate Professor in Supply Chain Management at the 91看片, reports 鈥� and they become highly amplified during the holiday shopping season. 

His co-authored papers, 鈥淓ffectiveness of frequent inventory audits in retail stores: An empirical evaluation,鈥� and 鈥淓mpirical evaluation of IRI mitigation strategies in retail stores,鈥� explore the phenomenon and propose some remedies. The articles were published in the International Journal of Logistics Management, and Journal of Operational Research Society, respectively.

鈥淭he outcome of this research is a new inventory classification framework; one that incorporates error profiles of store inventory,鈥� Ishfaq said. 鈥淲e analyzed store sales, inventory and replenishment data from a national department-store retailer to study the issue of inventory errors.鈥�

The analysis show that inventory errors are far more prevalent that one may think, and these information errors have a significant impact on retailers鈥� performance that lasts longer than previously known.

Where do the glitches come from? Human errors, for one. Operational errors in the distribution process. Errors in shipping and receiving at the stores. Sometimes, items just don鈥檛 arrive in expected quantities.

鈥淯sing field data, we simulated the retail store environment to provide a proof of concept for our proposed inventory framework and show how managing inventory based on store error profiles would save retailers expensive resources and improve customer service.鈥�

Ishfaq noted that many retail stores are taking up a new role of becoming tiny, local fulfillment centers. Items that are stocked locally 鈥� and shown as 鈥渋n stock鈥� on the website 鈥� can be ordered online and shipped directly from the store 鈥� saving the retailer money in shipping expenses, and briefly skewing the reported online inventory numbers.

鈥淲hat makes this research really interesting is its connection to all the people shopping online -- especially this holiday season. No one wants to wait for their orders just because store records were incorrect,鈥� Ishfaq added.